House of Gucci
Directed by Ridley Scott
★★½
Lady Gaga stars as Patrizia Reggiani in Ridley Scott’s HOUSE OF GUCCI A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures Inc. © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.
House of Gucci may have had too much in common with its real life story. Both the film and the murder for hire plot its story centers on end up being ill-conceived plots with poor execution.
Ridley Scott’s second feature of 2021 details the real life events that led up to the murder of Paolo Gucci (Adam Driver). The film mostly centers around Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) who meets and maybe(?) falls in love with Paolo Gucci. This highlights the film's biggest problems: the pacing, direction and writing are all over the board. At times we see that maybe Reggiani is just in it for the money, especially when we first meet her. Randomly, however, it seems as though she actually loves him, but it's never in a precise, ‘lightbulb’ moment, rather completely changing on a whim.
There is absolutely no consistency across the board. Tonally, the film gives audiences whiplash in the way that it jumps from complete camp, to serious drama to sexy romance. The color palette is sometimes warm and vibrant, yet sometimes cool and blue, but never with purpose.
The cast is stacked and mostly delivers solid performances. Driver and Gaga are terrific and have palpable sexual chemistry with one another. Driver gets to do something a little new, delivering (in the beginning) an awkward, boyish charm. Gaga furthers her movie star cred by remaining a force to be reckoned with every time she is on screen. Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Jared Leto (who play Paulo’s uncle, father and nephew, respectively) manage to find themselves in an entirely different movie. While that movie may be the more fun, campier version that this film was intended to become (a la Ryan Murphy), it just doesn’t mesh with the overstuffed beast House of Gucci truly is. While Pacino is always competent enough to sprinkle in nuance and be genuine when the film requires it of him, Leto is cementing himself as a garish oddity somehow maintaining his A-List status and curiously even being oft revered as an artist.
What’s frustrating is we know how talented Scott can be as a director, but here he has amassed a gargantuan run time, freshman editing techniques and plotting that doesn’t even pay off when it delivers what's promised on the box. It is disappointingly amateur for someone as talented as Scott. He is sometimes hit or miss, but at the very least we can count on a film that is constantly gorgeous to look at. So why, is this one so thrown together. Rodolfo Gucci would not be impressed.
As far as awards season goes, I think House of Gucci is basically DOA, save for Gaga, Make-Up and Hairstyling and Costuming (Dear God, do not let Leto in). It's disappointing, considering the fascinating true story and talent that was on display, but House of Gucci, though gaudy, is incoherent garble.
